In the wake of the November 14, Santa Clarita, California, school attack CBS News claimed there have been more mass shootings than days to this point in 2019.
CBS News points to figures from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) suggesting there have been 366 mass shootings during the first 319 days of 2019.
Ironically, GVA has long reported higher numbers of mass shootings than other outlets because they define mass shootings differently. Whereas the FBI defines a mass shooting as four or more killed in one incident, not counting the attacker. The GVA considers an incident a “mass shooting” even if there are no deaths. The GVA definition is broadened to include “FOUR or more shot and/or killed in a single event [incident],” not counting the attacker.
Because of this, their count of incidents contains FBI-verified mass shootings, such as Virginia Beach (May 31, 2019), El Paso (August 3, 2019), Dayton, Ohio (August 4, 2019), Odessa / Midland (August 31, 2019), but also counts a November 11, 2019 shooting in Florida where there were no casualties. They count a November 10, 2019, shooting in Kansas City, a shooting that same day in Little Rock, Arkansas, and a November 9, 2019, shooting in Vidalia, Georgia, none of which had casualties.
In fact, approximately 173 of GVA’s 366 “mass shootings” had zero fatalities, and this is to say nothing about the untold number of incidents with one casualty that they counted as a “mass shooting” as well.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.